A Telling Profile of Media Professional

The entertainment establishment-writers, producers and stars of the movies, TV programs and music we consume-are overwhelmingly liberal in their political outlook. Not so widely known is that voting patterns of American newspaper reporters and editors show a similar overwhelming lean to the left. Consider these findings:

• In the 1992 election, 89 percent of journalists who make up the Washington, D.C., press corps and report on national political news voted for the liberal candidate, Democrat Bill Clinton. Only 7 percent voted for the conservative candidate, Republican George H.W. Bush.
• Of these journalists, 61 percent saw themselves as "liberal" or "liberal to moderate," while only 9 percent regarded themselves as "conservative" or "moderate to conservative."
• A poll of 167 newspaper editors found that, in the 1992 and 1996 elections, 58 and 57 percent, respectively, voted for Democratic candidate Bill Clinton (compared to 43 and 49 percent of all other voters).
• A 1996 survey of more than 1,000 reporters at 61 newspapers found that, of those with more than 50,000 circulation (primarily large-city papers), 65 percent of the staff members were liberal or leaned to the left.
• A 2001 poll of more than 300 media professionals found that those who identified themselves as liberal outnumbered conservatives four to one.
• A 1980 study of 240 New York and Washington journalists found that 86 percent never or seldom attended religious services, and half had no religious affiliation at all.
• Some 90 percent of these journalists were pro-abortion.
• About 75 percent did not regard homosexuality as wrong, and 54 percent did not regard adultery as wrong. Only 15 percent of these journalists "strongly agreed" that adultery, abortion and homosexual practices were immoral.

(Sources: William Proctor, The Gospel According to The New York Times, 2000, pp. 44-46; Media Research Center.) GN